What an IKEA ad and your Teddy Bear have in Common

I watched this IKEA commercial in my intro social psychology class in college, and eight plus years later, it is still seared in my memory. Take the minute to turn on your volume and watch this commercial, and then I'll tell you how Spike Jonze used social psychology to render me near tears, and what this has to do with why you name your cars and can't feel bad getting rid of your childhood stuffed animals.

Did you feel bad for the lamp? I know I did. It was just sitting there in the rain looking so sad. But, as the guy points out - its just a lamp, it doesn't have feelings!

This commercial was playing right into our tendency to personify inanimate objects. Emotions are such an important part of the human experience that we even project them onto non-living things, such as that sad little red lamp. And Spike Jonze knew what he was doing by having the lamp imitate a young child (big head) showing nonverbal displays of sadness and shame (bent over, head down), since research shows that personifying inanimate objects in advertising leads to more positive emotions and greater liking for the brand (Delbraere, et al., 2011).

Another basic human need is the need to belong. Seeing that red lamp rejected and left out in the cold while the newer, brighter lamp gets to stay in the warm indoors strikes a chord in all of us (or at least it does for me!).

And its not just lamps and advertising - as a child I treated my stuffed animals as beloved members of the family, and I know a few people who have named their cars and see them a having a distinct personality.

Did you feel bad for that little red lamp? Did you have toys as a kid that you treated like part of the family? Does your car have a name, gender and a personality?

The article:
Delbaere, M., McQuarrie, E., & Phillips, B. (2011). Personification in Advertising Journal of Advertising, 40 (1), 121-130 DOI:10.2753/JOA0091-3367400108